Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Toronto Mike'd #55

Episode Date: November 13, 2013

Mike and Rosie are joined by Pete and talk about Toronto's best pizza and more.

Welcome to the 55th episode of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, often with a distinctly Toronto flavour. I'm Mike from torontomic.com. Joining me as always is Rosie from mytorontoscoop.com. And hosting this audio file are the good people at Core Fusion. And Rose, we're lucky that one of the good people at Core Fusion is sitting to my left right now. Pete McFedren. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening.

Hello, Pete. He's so nice. I didn't know all these nice people. Can I tell this nice story that I mentioned to Pete before you got here that your kid was going to a school and he couldn't believe somebody as young as you could already be a mother. Oh, go on. And then I told him that you're like 62 years old. I'm like so old.

I'm like a thousand years old. There's no, I'm saying to you, there's no lying about my age around Mike because he's known me for too long. Well, I said, I said she was born in my birth year. So if, you know. However, that being said, so lovely to hear. Pete, you are welcome to hang around us anytime. So I met Pete because Pete was a big Humble and Fred

fan. And when I used to help, I still help, but when I was more actively involved in the Humble and Fred podcast, Pete offered up his web services, if you will. So CoreFusion, tell us

your elevator pitch for CoreFusion. What do you guys do? Oh, the elevator pitch? Okay. I have to go into the deep voice one for that. No. Basically, we started in 1999. I'm not going to give you the whole 13, 14-year history, but essentially we started in 99 as it was the second startup for me, and the idea was to do pure hosting.

And our biggest product back then was IBM Lotus Notes Domino. And that's where my expertise was. So we provided that service and then just built it around that. So all the other hosted services that have come with it over the years, everything open source, a lot of Microsoft products, we've backed off a lot of the Microsoft products now because of Office 365, all that kind of stuff. But essentially, we're a essentially, our tagline is secure managed hosting. So you're securely hosting the MP3 files that are the Humble and Fred podcast. Correct. I know this because I configured their FTP.

I thought you made their coffee. I didn't know that. You did all those fancy things. Not only does Pete at CoreF Fusion host Humble and Fred podcasts, he also hosts another podcast called Toronto Mic'd. This one. This one right now. This will be streaming off his servers.

You're a good man, Pete. So does that mean, so with the Humble and Fred shows, that means you have all their shows, and does that mean you can make them disappear if you wanted to? I could. Of course you could. I thought that's what you... It'd be about three clicks of mouse and they're all gone.

It's fascinating. It's so interesting that... And we also have DVD backup copies of them. Whoa. Yeah. So they have to be very nice to you then. You'd think. Very cool.

Have you ever threatened... Like, have you ever threatened, like have you ever heard some content you disagreed with and threatened to go in and edit the files? No, no, no. Actually, and I haven't actually. Even if I did, I wouldn't obviously do that because that's just not what we do. Then no one would go to CoreFusion because...

Exactly. Let's put it this way. In the early 2000s, we hosted a website for a group of people that their whole reason for existing was to exist as babies. These are adults that would wear diapers and be

burped and stuff. I've heard about this. We hosted a website for them a long time ago. Consenting adults and all that. That's really interesting. So would you say what is the most, I guess, popular or biggest website that you host? Well, we don't do as many websites as we do applications and email.

So, I mean, I can do some name dropping, some of them we can't. For example, we host some stuff for one of the largest banks in Canada. We host for, well, we did host for PricewaterhouseCoopers for a very long time. As a matter of fact, they were our first customer. So in 1999, I used to work at PricewaterhouseCoopers. So when we started up, they were into the whole Y2K thing. We were a brand new hosting company that had absolutely no Y2K issues because we're brand new stuff. Brand new. And they stayed with us for, well, over 12 years before they hauled everything back in-house

like a lot of the larger companies are doing these days. What about Sterling Cooper? Did you ever host for them? Sterling Cooper? Is that the right name, Rose? Because they changed their name at the end of last season. Sterling Cooper, Draper Price. They dropped Draper Price.

Talking about bad men. And last season, they dropped Draper Price. There wasn't even computers when that show was set. Yeah, they were big, right? Like big things. I've seen them. They did exist though. IBM had some, but they were big.

Just a question because I was watching this before I came over. What do you think of the whole Obamacare website? What is happening there? Why can't they find someone to make their website work? Is that hosted by Core Fusion? They need you. It is not. We wouldn't be eligible due to the fact that we're a Canadian-based company.

Why can't they keep it up? Because there are a lot of people that don't want it up. That's why. Is that really what it is? Absolutely. Oh, my gosh. That's so... I can't wrap my head around it.

I'm thinking, how is it possible that this website doesn't work? How could they... Come on. So that's truly what it is. It's because people don't want it to work. Wow. So it keeps getting brought down. It's not like it falls down. It's because people don't want it to work. Wow. So it keeps getting brought down. It's not like it falls down.

It's being brought down. So how will they overcome this? They just keep getting... FBI, NSA. I'm sure they'll have to get involved to stop some of that stuff. Fascinating. It's just been really fascinating. I take a break from the he who will not be mentioned,

all the seg of that going on and checking in with the Obamacare stuff, because I just find it all so... You mean Dalton McKinsey? Of course, exactly. I don't want to bring the name up, but somebody has to. It's bananas. It's all bananas.

Yeah, but he stepped down. That's the difference. Before we go down that road... Before we go down the road uh i recently wrote about uh the chapters uh on bluer near runnymede that was the runnymede theater so chapters is leaving and shoppers drug mart is coming in but rose did you know pete has uh in his possession some mementos from the old runnymede theater no way i saw some really good what do you have what do you have i have two rows of four seats from the theater that is so cool that is so freaking cool and it was it was a shame too because we asked we went to the last my wife

and i went to the last movie and we asked on the way out like what are they doing kind of thing i was literally looking to get some seats for sure and they said uh no we don't know anything you can't take anything you know just go away kind of thing. So we're like, okay. And less than a week later, there was, you know, trucks outside. They were already starting to do the demolition. So I walked by and asked somebody, I said, what's going on with all the seats and stuff? Because it looked like they were starting to take seats out. Right.

And I thought, well, maybe somebody bought them and they're doing that. The guy said, no, we got a bobcat ready to go. We're coming in and we're going to just rip them all out, a bobcat just destroy them so they'd be garbage essentially yeah so he said the bobcat driver's on his lunch break and when he comes back you got to get out so yeah but you got them and timing is everything had you not seen that approached him had that conversation they would have been gone yeah that's really my wife somehow i don't even know how but my wife got the movie poster from the last movie and we went immediately went away on vacation after we started this conversation i forgot to find it and find out what the movie was that's my next question i have to ask you what was

i think if i remember correctly it was a chick flick that's probably why i don't remember what it was the notebook oh no I did not see that. You know what's funny is Westwood Theater, which is a theater that for ages had been getting ready to be demolished. It had been there, been there, been there. And then I drove by it a few weeks ago, and it was really startling because now it's gone. And I guess I knew it was coming,

but I have to admit it was a bit unsettling to see this. I had seen so many movies there. I didn't see the very last movie there but one of the last movies there i remember it was two dollars we saw titanic and the heat nothing was working in there anymore so they had all the emergency exit doors open because and it got like really really hot there was compensation but there was something really cool about just knowing i don't know knowing that you're seeing one of the last movies i imagine it must have been like that at the Renamid. But it was jarring to see it gone. I was like, oh, it's gone.

That's it. Because the one at Bloor and Jane. It's open. The Humber. The Humber's still there. My daughter saw a movie there Saturday. Okay. So they're definitely gone.

And my wife's from the neighborhood. I won't tell her age, but she's been there for a long time. Her whole life. And so the whole thing was pretty sad for her. But then when they reopened, she used to talk to the guy and got the whole story about, you know, why it closed, why it was empty for so long, why it reopened and all that stuff. So it was pretty neat. So interesting. Well, I was reading about the running mead that they have to, you know, maintain the outside of the building because of heritage laws.

So the outside, you know, the facade will have to be preserved but on the inside you know everything that chapters had done to um you know preserve parts of the stage and a lot of the really interesting things they they did shoppers doesn't have to do any of that no there's nothing to protect the interior just the exterior they did a wonderful job it really is was a special place. But as apparently the spokesperson said, the landlord can get far, far, far more than they're willing to pay. And Shoppers has all that PC blue label money behind it now. But I suspect they will not preserve anything on the inside. What are they going to do with the other eight shoppers within the two block radius?

Oh my gosh. We're lousy with shoppers. I don't really go to shoppers. I find it overpriced. So I'm not. I will if I have to, but I don't seek out. Good flyer items though. Good flyer items.

See, I disagree. I don't think the flyer items are that good. I think if you really compare, they're not so good. My wife and her mom go there. She's a senior. So they go there last Thursday of every month and everything's like 99% off or something like that. They get 4,000 shoppers points or whatever.

Totally. Well, I know seniors... Then it's worth it. Then it's worth it for sure. But you're right. There's so many nearby and I just, I don't know, I can't... They don't... Anyways, they might do something with everything on the inside, but they don't have to. It's just the exterior. Okay, so this is our pizza episode episode but before we dive into the wonderful wonderful world of pizza

uh i just want to do a quick update uh we won't speak about the guy you don't want to speak about except to say that i wrote this uh impromptu entry last week called how to talk to your kids about rob ford so i threw it down it was 90 seconds it was actually a comment on an open mic and then i copied and pasted it as an entry because i quite liked how it turned out but it was 90 seconds no joke and it got picked up so the toronto star put it on the front page of their entertainment life section and rose you saw it in the guardian because you sent me a picture not the guardian no i was at the hospital the free free, the Metro paper. The one Toronto Star owns. Yeah. Yeah. And then I had the next day, Global TV came here to interview me. You saw that. Yeah, you saw it?

Good. So I just thought it was interesting how these entries you throw down at night. I sometimes will care about an entry and actually work on it and come back to it. And it ends up taking, you know, half an hour of my life. And it will get like two comments and no retweets or whatever and then I'll throw something down in 90 seconds and I've got like the CBC calling me and

Global and the Stars. You never know what will resonate with an audience. I guess that's the thing it's just obviously that connected with people and I think it's because it's something everyone could relate to or lots of people can relate to. Your kids you know, how do you explain to your kids like it's some serious stuff have you talked to nikki about this yet um she's laughing i'm like

i'm still lucky enough that he is you know far too little to understand crack your neighbors must have loved the global van out in front of your your house because this in this area normally that means a crack takedown, right? Okay, we are south of Lakeshore, my friend. You got to go a few houses north to get to the crack bell. But you're right. I was at a fundraiser for my very good friend, Mike Kick. They're raising money for him because he's actually about to battle stage four esophageal cancer.

He starts Friday, his treatments. And at that party, remember Ill Vibe, who's been on the show a couple times uh he was there and he used to live like on lakeshore near here right and he was telling me this is where he witnessed his first toronto crime he saw a guy stabbed once like he's seen some hardcore crime happening and then i could throw a stone and hit that place so i'm like once, once you venture north to Lakeshore, anything goes. Just be ready. But if you did throw that stone and hit the place, that would be a crime.

That would be a crime. He seems like a pacifist to me. I can't really see Il-Five. You're just bananas. Il-Five is just a crazy person. He's a pacifist in that he's a pothead who can't muster enough resentment to actually throw a punch because he's all pacifist in that he's a pothead who can't muster enough like resentment

to actually throw a punch because he's all just he's too mellow but i did see him the other day and he says hi and let's get to the topic of the day let's talk about our favorite pizza in toronto who wants to start oh by the way during this segment i did promise our good friend andrew stokely that we would skype him in fun do you want to start with him just because i have no idea how this will work okay this is the first time for toronto mike we have somebody joining us via skype what an age we live in because he's somewhere like at some uh curling well we'll ask him where the hell he is just one second well. Well, while you do that, I'm going to just say quickly, I got to give a hello to some of our Toronto Mike friends.

First of all, oh, is he ready? Are you there? Okay, we'll get to them after. Andrew Stokely. Hi there. Hey, where are you right now? I'm in lovely Medicine Hat, Alberta. Medicine Hat, Alberta.

And what are you doing there? I'm here to mix the Grand Slam of a curling Canadian Open for Sportsnet and CBC. Andrew, you sound like you're working hard. Hi, Rosie. Hello, how are you? I'm in one of your former trucks right now. I'm in the pride of the fleet, Atlantic. No, how is it everybody in Atlantic?

Everyone's good. Oh, tell everybody hello. Miss you guys. Big time. Hey, Andrew, is it true they're going to rename the Atlantic the Rose? Is that correct? I'm aware. They're releasing a bunch of new trucks.

They just released a new one called Shadow. Oh, that's really the Rose, I guess. There's a new truck that's just been announced called Silver for the 25th anniversary of Dome Productions, and that's supposed to come out next winter at some point. Just for those of you who don't know, I used to work at Dome with Andrew. I used to crew the mobile productions for tons of the sporting events that Andrew's working on right now. So I got to know many of these wonderful, wonderful people like Andrew who work so hard and are so talented. And I miss them because they were fun and cool, especially you, Andrew.

Okay, hold on one second. Just wait. I have to do something. This is exciting. I'm not on an IFB, so you just have to yell over the radio. Yeah, that sounds good. That's nice and clean. There's no ghosts.

All right, that's good. Sorry, I'm checking RF gear. All right, so it's not the back. This is really exciting, man. He's actually at work. Like, literally. Andrew, we've talked about Andrew before, but he's truly... He's been on the show.

I'm not underplaying this. He's one of the top audio operators in the country. Rose, he's co-hosted this show. I know, I was here. No, co-hosted. Like, you didn't show up one day. I had an emergency call to Andrew. He was here in like 20 minutes.

That was the day he set you up here, right? Andrew set up this podcast studio. When he comes back, we'll introduce Andrew to Pete. I don't think they've ever crossed paths. We try to keep them apart. Well, they're both extremely integral to this operation. That's why we don't put them in the same room. They can't be in the same room.

Yeah, the prices have to go up. Hey, Andrew. Joining us here is Pete from Core Fusion. Say hi to Pete for us. Hi, Peter. Hi, Andrew. How are you? I'm two time zones behind.

I've been on the road for almost a month. And I've got another three weeks to go before i finally have some downtime nice and has it all been curling you've been working on is it couldn't curling wow do you know as of right now i've done i think 92 draws of curling and 92 ends of curling so far my goodness do you understand the rules of curling like uh after 92 do you actually understand how it works? Yeah, I do now because I've been doing the curling for... Well, the Sportsnet, this program's now in its second year, the slams.

But I did the TSN curling, the CCA stuff, since 2009. So I didn't have a clue when I started, but now I pretty much know what's a good curling shot and what's a crappy curling shot. So are you an audio? Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hard. Are you an audio or video guy then? Audio. Okay, hold on, let me listen to it. He's listening. Andrew, where are your priorities here?

You're live on Toronto Mike episode 55. Well, live's a hard drive. Well, why don't we just let Andrew quickly tell us his favorite pizza and let him get back to work? I gotta hear first, is there any good pizza in Medicine Hat? And then he's gonna tell us his favorite pizza in Toronto, and then we can dismiss him.

And then Andrew, make sure you bill this guy for your time. Oh, there's CCUs. Rose, do you know what that means? Rose doesn't know anything technical. That is not my area of expertise. CCU stands for Camera Control Unit. We should have had a guessing game.

Yeah. So, first of all, any good pizza in Medicine Hat? I haven't seen any, but there is a Panago pizza out here, but we haven't had time to go out. I went for sushi the first night, which surprisingly in medicine hat wasn't too bad that's awesome and then we just went to a pub last night and original joe was just we we were in for we had like a 10 hour day yesterday so we were just tired and we just wanted to have food and then we've been here since 10 uh mountain time so we started to hear at noon your time, and we'll probably be here at about 7 or 8 o'clock.

And then we start bright and early and go three draws on Thursday, three draws on Friday, three draws Saturday, and then the final on Sunday. And then I get to go home for less than 24 hours, and then I go to Sherbrooke for some hockey. Very cool. And then I go to Washington for some hockey. And then I come back out west for Calgary for one hockey game, and then go to the canadian olympic trials in winnipeg for 12 days and then

i get to go home and we go on vacation so that's december 9th is my uh that's my uh goal whoa that's a busy busy schedule yeah well you know what it's like, Rose. You used to schedule us. That was, I used to just be amazed at how the endurance that you guys would have and how you would still put, you know, you would, especially you. I mean, some people would get cranky after. It's a lot of travel. It's a lot of travel, these guys do. And some of them really would start to show the wear and tear after a while. Not Andrew.

He was always smiling and always friendly. That's what makes him special. I try. I like it. Andrew, when you lived in... I tried to show a little bit, but, you know. We're going to Disney when I get home, so that's, you know, that's the goal.

You're going to Disney? Do you know I've never been? I've never been. It's crazy. California or Florida? We hadn't... I hadn't been... We took Indy the first time three years,

so this will be our fourth trip in four years just because he's fallen in love with it, Carrie's fallen in love with it. I hadn't been since 77, so I was five when I went originally the first time. Oh, you were a little guy. Yeah, but you know what? I remember things like the Peter Pan, right? Because Magic Kingdom was the only thing that was open. Nothing else was open at the time.

So we're going to go. We've got, we'll hit all the parks the time. So we're going to go. We've got, we'll hit all the parks. And then we're also going to get Universal Studios to check out Harry Potter World again. Because that's my favorite. I could forget Disney, but Harry Potter World is fantastic. That is amazing. The butterbeer there is outstanding.

Butterbeer? Yeah, they have the butterbeer that you can get. It tastes like a frozen version of A&W's cream soda. Oh, my God. That sounds amazing. I've never even heard of that. I just learned something new. I want to try that. Fabulous.

Well, it will be a well-earned vacation by the time you get there, Andrew. That's awesome. Andrew, when you lived in Toronto, tell us, what was your favorite pizza? Il Paisano. I love that. That was your favorite pizza. That is totally my favorite delivery pizza. It's amazing. So tell us, where is it and what made it special?

Well, it's at the corner of Brown's Line and Horner. It's a locally owned, just an independent store, not a chain. They have probably the best garlic bread with cheese on top of their pizza um it might have paid a little more than what you know you'd get you know any of the chains or whatever but i'd rather have i would just go pick it up but the cost was i wasn't getting charged for delivery just fresh toppings nice thin crust crispy. The sauce wasn't too acidic. It was kind of a mellow sauce, which I like. I don't like a really acidic pizza sauce.

I would agree the sauce is outstanding. Yeah. On your recommendation, I recently picked up some pizza from Il Paisano, and it was very, very good. It was exceptional. I kind of feel like if you live in this area, if you live in South Etobicoke West Toronto there's really no excuse

to not be ordering from there. It's cheaper than Pizza Pizza a million times better and I think it's just one of those things it's been there

I think it's been there for like over 30 years. Yeah it might be better than Pizza Pizza but it's not cheaper than Pizza Pizza. I think it is. I do the walk-in special.

There's free delivery. Pizza Pizza charges for delivery. Oh I've never you know what I haven't paid for delivery in probably 15 years. But if you're getting a pizza delivered. I don't know.

Il Pizzano doesn't charge for delivery and Pizza Pizza does. So right there, it's cheaper. And lots of people don't get their pizza delivered. Andrew, we're going to let you get back to it. Thanks so much. This is the first time we had a Skype call. And I think it worked out well. So I think we might do it always via Skype from now on.

Rose could do it in her pajamas. There you go. Yeah. Well, thanks. Yeah. Like I said, that was,

um, we were there, we were in South Tobacco for 10 years and that's where we ordered from. In fact, when I played squash at one of the clubs at Mississauga and some of the guys who I played squash with would drive into Tobacco to pick up Il Paisano and take back to their places and port credit because that's how good the pizza was. That really is a sign, eh?

If you're driving from somewhere to get something, that means it was good and it was worth it. You really liked it. Very cool. Awesome, man. There's not too much. I mean, we're pretty self-sufficient out in Niagara, but I do drive into Mississauga for dim sum

because we don't have a dim sum place in Niagara, which is really bizarre considering the casino and all. But there is not a dim sum restaurant at all in Niagara. It's hilarious. Well, Andrew, you know what I say. You dim sum, you lose some. Well, I bet you one will come. It might take time, but eventually you'll get one there for sure.

Yeah, hopefully. All right, man. Take care. Thanks, guys. I got to go. I got to – Bye, Andrew. I'd like to test out.

Bye, Andrew. Take care. Check out the coverage this weekend on Sportsnet and CBC. Will do. Say hi to Cheryl's trainer. Yes, I will. Bye. Bye, Andrew.

Take care. Thanks, girls. Rosie. He's so fun. Your. Bye, Andrew. Take care. Thanks, girls. Rosie. He's so fun. Your favorite pizza in Toronto. I just realized where we are time-wise, so I'm going to start talking a little faster than normal. Okay.

Well, for me, there are two types of pizza. There's a pizza like Il Paisano that you get as delivery or pickup, just kind of like casual pizza. And then there is the more fancy pizza, like if you're going out to dinner and you want, you know, it's actually like a bit the more like fancy pizza. Like if you're going out to dinner and you want, you know, it's, it's, it's actually like a bit more of like a, an event. So for me, my favorite sort of like casual at home pizza, um, El Paisano is actually number two.

Number one is Rocco's pizza. Now Rocco's, I'm talking about Rocco's Plum Tomato, but there's obviously franchises. I'm talking about the one, this is a specific one on the Queensway. It is on the north side. It's actually just west of the big Sobeys Plaza. So there's a Rocco's Plum Tomato. Pretty close from the food terminal. Exactly.

So there's a Rocco's Plum Tomato there and there's like a the formal sit-down restaurant then right beside it there's like the uh the takeout part and that's the part i always go to and that's the part that has two things that i think are the best and the best value as well in the city pizza and veal sandwiches so what we always do is we go is we get two veal sandwiches and a slice of pizza the pizza is bananas it is so good it's ridiculous they have bananas on the pizza

there's money in the banana stand nice oh my god no that's we'll talk about that in a second when we get to Roche

my story about Roche and hilarious pizza because it has to do with ridiculous pizza topping something should never okay I have that entry for you right here thank you

but yes so Rocco's plum tomato the takeout takeout side, the pizza is insane. You must try it. You also must try the veal sandwiches. And you cannot beat what you get for the price and the quality. Amazing, delicious. Number two, Il Paisano. Number three, this is going to sound crazy, but I don't care.

It's how I feel. Just tell the truth, Rose. When you go to Costco, the takeout food section, the pizza, the baked pizza that takes them, I don't know, 10 minutes to make it and you take it home. I don't know what they do to it, but it's amazing. It's crazy. It is so good. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Have you had this pizza? Yeah, but it takes 45 minutes on a Friday afternoon. That's the thing. If you have the time, they say it takes 10 minutes, but I've done my whole shopping, put it in the car, gone to the pharmacy, got pictures, got my passport pictures taken, and it's still not ready. I don't, but I don't know why it tastes so good. It's like the crust, it's like baked or something or whatever. I don't know.

And it's like 13 or 15 bucks. I'm not sure. It's cheap. It's so delicious. That is like my favorite pizza. That's a good tip. I've never tried the pizza at Costco. Yeah.

Really, really yummy. And I just got my spouse card on Saturday. I've never had a membership card for Costco before I got it Saturday. Like a spouse card. It came with the wedding. Nice. I inherited it through marriage. Rose, that's a good tip. I never thought of Costco and that Rocco's is really close to the place

I go to for pasta all the time. Mama Martino's. Yes. I know that strip and that's not far. I promise I'm going to try that pizza and tell you how it is. You will love it. Pete. Yes. Toronto pizza.

What's your favorite place to get pizza in Toronto? Okay, I'm going to add to Rosie's because she said there's two ways to get your pizza delivery and blah, blah, blah. There's a third way and that's my favorite.

You make it yourself. Make it yourself. Oh my God, totally. I thought that was disqualified, Rose, when I was preparing for this episode. I actually have for make at home pizzas, but we'll get to that. I would rather have my own pizza. I make a pretty good pizza, but I'm not big on pizza either.

So if I'm going to get a pizza in Toronto, I'm probably going to go to Domino's. Of the takeout ones, that's the one that I can stomach. My brother loves Domino's pizza, loves it. We have had, yeah, I agree. It's very pizza. Loves it. We have had... Yeah, I agree. It's very good. Something about it. It's just like it has like a... Yeah.

You know, a certain... The crust rises a little bit differently. The toppings are a little fresher. And I don't know why you're playing the Italian music because pizza... Everybody knows it's a Chinese invention. Okay. Is that true? Because I've been to Italy in the last month and I had a lot of pizza there and they act

like they invented the thing. They think they invented ice cream too. They did. So I knew spaghetti like came from China, but you're saying pizza came from China. Pasta, pizza, ice cream. Pizza. This breaks my heart, Rose. Did you know this?

Does your dad know this? It doesn't matter. What matters is who's the best at it. That's actually a good point. Who cares who invented it? Where does everyone turn to for the best pizza? Is it my turn? It's your turn. Okay, so in my

old hood, where I still frequent, still spend a lot of time because my kids are there all the time and my kid plays hockey there. It's pretty low. No, make it lower. It's really distracting. That's better. Thank you. Rose doesn't like make it lower it's really distracting that's thank you rose doesn't like dean martin it's just distracting from from if you're no no new about your dislike for dean martin you could be disowned i like him a lot it's just too loud the um yeah the headphones are too

loud i'm sorry the uh pizza that i loved from your stomping grounds and my old stomping grounds is vesuvio's pizza on dundas street west uh we used to get that all the time when i was in the neighborhood they don't i don't think they'll deliver this far they have like a very no no no so i could do through dine to though oh interesting but i haven't had the zivios and stuff stuff used to live near there, and whenever we'd go over there, we'd go to Vesuvius. I would rave about it, and then I finally took Monica there.

I should point out, full disclosure, because, you know, my journalistic integrity is everything, but my brother's son's mother... Am I saying that right? Yes. Works at Vesuvio's. But I loved their pizza before she was employed there.

And I took Monica there and I was so excited. And she gave me a, oh, it's okay kind of review. It's kind of how I feel. It broke my heart. I love the place. It's good. And then I went to El Pasano's, which was very good, but not as good as Vesuvio's. But I'll be honest, because I love pizza.

I have pizza probably at least, I make pizza all the time, but I'll order it from somewhere else about once a week, usually every Friday. But when you make pizza, does that mean you pull it out of the freezer and you put it in the oven? No, I'll tell you... I make it from scratch. Kramer says it's not a pizza until it comes out of the oven.

Was that Kramer? I can't remember. I like that. So I was going to say that my kids are much and they're only kids. They're like 11 and 9 or whatever. They like the $4.99

walk-in special at Pizza Pizza. But I promise, I just want to give a shout out to, you mentioned Panago. No, you didn't mention it. Andrew had it in Medicine Hat. I understand Panago started in Alberta because Monica used to have it

in Edmonton all the time. Panago Pizza is doing this random acts of pizza promotion on Twitter. And many people on Twitter have been given these $20 gift cards from Panago. And they sent me one. And we had this meatball pizza and it was very, very good. I would go back. It was very good. So I want to thank Panago for the $20 gift card

and just tell Panago that Rosie in Toronto is on Twitter and she wants a $20 gift card too. I've never been to Panago, but there's one at Six Points Plaza. And I've always, it looks... That's where I picked it up. Yeah, like it looks, I've always been curious about it. But again, it's like, because like,

I don't eat pizza very often. So when I do, you kind of tend to want to go to your favorite. So I've never tried it. But meatball pizza, good choice. Um, it's funny because like I, it's always, I always love hearing about what people's favorite, you know, pizza toppings are and the things they like on pizza. Um, but, um, I do feel that there are, you know,

I think mostly anything goes, but I do feel that there are some things that should never be on a pizza. Like just absolutely fruit. think most you know fruits except for pineapple because hawaiian pizza is the best i know tomato tomato is a vegetable horticulturally botanically it's a fruit but i have to talk about a pizza that um okay so our friend roshan he has a blog which i like to check in with awaken Roshan's in India Roshan is in India, awakendreaming.org and he has a thing called I think it's his Friday Eats or Friday

on Fridays he'll post, or Friday Pizza he'll post stuff on Fridays about food so anyways I was checking in one day and he had a post about the case of the hilarious pizza and Roshan, if you're listening I post the link to this so everyone can see the pizza because this is obviously a podcast.

So you can't only hear what I'm saying. You can't see the pizza and you really got to see the picture of this. But I've been waving to the camera all episode. Yeah. So Roshan had a pizza. He went to this food court and he ordered a pizza. And this pizza truly is the most insane thing i've ever seen i looked at it and again this is why roshan you have to put the link on mike's site so everybody can see this crazy pizza

it's bananas it's just like look at this pizza pete look at this pizza what is on this pizza okay so i'm going to tell you what is on this pizza so okay it's got on it crunchy noodles. That was close. Yeah, chopped onions, coriander, and it looks like – to me it looks like there was just like all this like lettuce on it too, but I actually think that that's the coriander. And rusk, which he describes as – if you don't know what rusk is, it's a hard dry biscuit or a twice-baked bread.

And that was actually the base of it, so it wasn't like a crust. Anyways, again... That's not a pizza. That's not a pizza. It's just not a pizza. So you can't just put whatever you want. That's hard bread with some toppings.

Thank you. That's exactly what this crazy pizza... It's a great debate. I would argue that is a pizza. Oh, so Mike thinks... So you think this is... Yeah, it's a ridiculous pizza, but if you have a base of a bread product and then there's like anything and i

think there should be some cheese unless you're lactose intolerant uh yeah if you put some if you have like i think a grilled cheese if you only had one slice of bread that's a pizza no mike i don't know about this no i don't know this is a great debate to have the open face reuben pizza yeah it's oh i love rubens oh my gosh i haven't thought you know something to just forget about i haven't had a reuben in so long and they might be like my favorite sandwich but i like sandwich i like grilled cheese i like rubens next episode is best reuben pickle barrel a podcast from montreal it. Anyways, Rocha really cracked me up with this crazy pizza. He did eat it and he said that, I can say that it tasted, it didn't taste that bad, but it wasn't good either.

That just made me laugh. So Rocha, thank you for sharing your hilarious pizza, which again, I'm not really quite sure is a pizza, but you got to check it out and put the link because that really, honestly, if I was served that, I would just be like, oh my God. The picture also shows it came with a package of ketchup. Oh yeah, if you put ketchup on your pizza, you're doing it wrong. Not a pizza. Guys, just quickly, favorite pizza topping?

Just because I always love hearing everyone's pizza toppings. Meat. Meat. Any meat. Any meat except my favorite is pepperoni because the default walk-in special I'll get with the kids is a pepperoni pizza. Does that make it your favorite or is that just

your most frequent? I'd say if you... I would say it's my favorite as well. So if you could only put one meat on a pizza? I'll do pepperoni. Yeah. Mine too. Pepperoni for sure. If I can only have one meat, pepperoni. But if I can only have one ingredient, if it was like, okay, here's the cheese,

and you only get one ingredient, it would definitely be anchovies. My favorite hands down. I love them. If they're cooked really, really well, I'm okay with it, but most places don't cook the anchovies well enough to put on a pizza that I can stomach.

El Paisano does them good. So does Rocco's. And I should give a shout out now to one of my employees, Rob Brooks. He's a pizza aficionado, and he had pizza for lunch today, I think from Pizza Nova. Is he on Skype? And I should give a shout out now to one of my employees, Rob Brooks. He's a pizza aficionado. And he had pizza for lunch today. I think from Pizza Nova.

Is he on Skype? I'm so glad you mentioned Pizza Nova. I'm so glad you mentioned Pizza Nova because that's actually another top one for me. I've always lived near a Pizza Nova. There's always been one within walking distance of me. And they make really, really good pizza. And my grandparents, my little grandparents, they really like the pizza with spinach. So the last thing I want to say about Rob is that we're doing a Movember thing,

a gig in Newmarket, November 23rd. Go to mobro.co slash Pete McFedden for all the details. Very cool. How's that? Pete, you're a good man. After sitting in for your first episode of Toronto Mic, will you continue to host our MP3 files? I don't think I have any choice.

Aren't you just leeching off of Humble and Fred? That's true. If you kick me out, you have to kick Humble and Fred out too. Of course we would. We're more fun. And that brings us to the end of our 55th show. You can follow me on Twitter, at Toronto Mike, and Rosie, at Rosie in Toronto,

and Pete, what's your Twitter handle? At Core Fusion for the company, and at Pete McVeteran for me. See you all next week. Bye for now.